Raised Mateless (On Hold)

Chapter 7

Christopher Lawson –

                Love makes you weak. It rips apart any barrier you had, and leaves you vulnerable and broken. When you care about something or someone they become a weakness, and thus are nothing more than an inconvenience to you. If you love someone, you have to forget about them.

Her legs wrapped around my waist like venomous rose vine, beautiful but dangerous. Her skin soft as silk and kissed by the sun, her eyes dyed in the colour of lust and need. Her hair felt soft and thick through my fingers, and her lips swelled with passion to ripen to a delicate crimson.  

“Chris,” she breathed, I could feel the rush of air from her mouth against my neck causing another shiver to run down my spine.

‘A mate only makes you weak; do you want to embarrass me, Christopher?’ The words grew louder and louder, choking any notion of a happy ending to death. A whisper of a memory turned binding promise of respect and resentment.

“Fuck, Harper.” My voice still rang husky and full of want, even with the doubts from the back of my mind growing stronger by the second. “I want you, do you want me?”

“Y-Yes,” She moaned, stuttering slightly, which I couldn’t help the swell of pride I felt bringing such emotions out in her.

She’s already mated; she’s a liar and the mother of a child that isn’t even mine. I could have been a loving mate, maybe even a good father, but now he was right, that isn’t for me. Being a mate isn’t in the cards for me.

“Good.” I growled, grounding my teeth together to stop my obvious anger showing on my face. I replaced the rage with a nonchalant look; I masked the hurt with a smirk, and hid my feelings with a brush of the cheek. I untangled all of her from me, and pulled away as slow as I could. “I’ll see you later, doll face.” I murmured, before turning my back and just walked away.

-

Nine days, four hours, thirteen minutes, and forty-four seconds.

I didn’t mean to count the days, or relive the last moment I had seen Harper, it just happened and kept happening. When I was younger, and still part of a pack, people would tell me being away from your mate is the equitant of having someone pull every tooth from your mouth. Yet, I thought I'd handled it rather well, I was the same as before.

Fuck, I had been better than before. I didn’t need to worry about meeting her, since I already had. I didn’t need to care to change who I was for someone else, I didn’t need to be a better man.

I had one reason to ask to talk to her that day, and it sure as hell wasn’t to torture myself by kissing her. My plan was to tell her I was worth more than that other guy and reject her – easy. Except it wasn’t as easy as I thought, she got so close to me and it just all fall apart. Now I'm falling apart.

“Chris, what are you doing here?” Molly beamed, adjusting the circular tray in her hand. “Haven’t seen you in what seems like forever, sugar!” She ran her hand through her auburn locks, and shook her bangs from her eyes.

I couldn’t help but jump from her high pitch voice. Molly was an ex flame of Shane’s from a few months earlier, she had been working at Bella Coola for about two years, and got Shane the bartending job here. Even after they broke up she didn’t hold a grudge, she was the same smiling waitress as always.

“Hey Mol, yeah I'm sorry about that, but I'm here to see the big brother, you seen him?”

She nodded, and flicked her head towards the employee longue. “He’s in the back; I think he’s still on his break.”